1936, London

The Olympics have often been a political target, and none more so than the Berlin games of 1936, dominated by Hitler and the black American athlete Jesse Owens. In Tom McNab's play, talks leading up to the games are seen through the eyes of US journalist William Shirer, involving Hitler and Goebbels, the International Olympic Committee and the Amateur Athletics Union of the USA as tensions rise over the Führer's treatment of the Jews and Jewish athletes. Who better to write this play than McNab, not just a top athletics coach to Olympians three times over and the England rugby team but also an award-winning writer, with novels, plays and involvement in the Oscar-winning Chariots Of Fire to his credit? In 1936 he poses the question: might a boycott have changed the course of history?

Now in its ninth year, the 24:7 Festival has proved its worth as a generator of new writing talent and a showcase for actors and directors, too. With more than 70 performances over its eight days (including Jo Kirtley Pritchard's Loaded, to 26 Jul), there's something for everyone, from surreal comedy to tragedy. Playwrights need to get their work performed if they are going to develop, and 24:7 gives 10 writers the opportunity to see their plays mounted for seven performances. It's the local nature of the festival that gives it its distinct flavour and following, and as with previous years, we're expecting it to throw up writers whose work will go on to be seen more widely.

One of the most extraordinary and unusual projects of the London 2012 festival, Deborah Warner's coastal tents will be appearing at eight locations across the British Isles including Godrevy in Cornwall, Cliff Beach on the Isle of Lewis, White Park Bay in Northern Ireland and Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland. Inspired by the Olympics of ancient Greece and created in collaboration with Fiona Shaw, the work takes the form of recorded love poems spoken by actors, poets, and members of the public woven into a soundscape. Designed to be visited between dusk and dawn, it sounds like a truly memorable, intimate experience.

Various venues, Thu to 22 Jul

LG

Truth About Youth: The Festival, Manchester

Truth About Youth

The Takeover Festival in York has already proved that there are dividends when young people are given free rein in theatres to create and programme work. Now Manchester is trying a similar experiment, with a season of 40 events in which teenagers will not only be staging their own work but also taking on the roles of marketing, managing and designing it. There's potentially great work, including a new interactive project from Quarantine called Between Us We Know Everything, plus My Young And Foolish Heart, in which teenagers and grandparents appear on stage beside each other. Add to that Filter's take on A Midsummer Night's Dream running in the main house, and the Exchange should be buzzing.

This year's festivities in Milton Keynes begin in flames, as French fire alchemists La Compagnie Carabosse light up the sky with Fire Gardens, a show to set Campbell Park ablaze with its glowing sculptures. Cambodian company Phare Ponleu Selpak makes its debut in the UK with Rouge, a piece examining how a whole new generation of Cambodians have grown up believing the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror to be a myth. There's also circus from Catalan company, Enfila't – whose Plecs merges acrobatics and music – and a Tom Waits tribute from L'Orchestre D'Hommes-Orchestres; while Au Cul Du Loup celebrates sport with Score, featuring an intergalactic hockey match.

Previous reviewers at London venues have been asked not to reveal the content of this promenade spectacle, the brainchild of Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd, which has been dubbed a "physically challenging interactive experience". It's certainly not for the shy or faint of heart, since you are the star of the show. After shedding their belongings, visitors are taken away by wheelchair to embark on a series of encounters with various bizarre tableaux or scenes. Not only that, but they have to take part. At the end, you'll be dazed, confused, and unsure what you've just seen.

As she retires as director of the Royal Ballet, Monica Mason's present to herself is this ambitious dance collaboration. It takes inspiration from Titian's trio of paintings depicting scenes from Ovid's Diana And Actaeon, but with the mix of talents involved it promises to fizz in all manner of ways. The score comes courtesy of Jonathan Dove, Nico Muhly and Mark-Anthony Turnage, but Mason's grand flourish is in allocating the choreography to seven dance makers. Will Tuckett, Liam Scarlett and Jonathan Watkins take one section; Wayne McGregor and Kim Brandstrup team up for another; and Christopher and Wheeldon and Alastair Marriott for the third.

Big Street Dance Day, Nationwide

Big Street Dance Day. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty

If the numbers are impressive for Titian (see above), they go into dazzling overdrive for Big Street Dance Day, the climax of this year's Olympic Big Dance festival. Around the UK, mass outdoor performances will take over cities and towns, with 1,000 dancers gathering in Trafalgar Square alone. This 45-minute piece will be a mixture of styles, from Bollywood to street dance to ballet, under the steady direction of renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor and his dancers from Random Dance Company. If Trafalgar Square is too crowded, Londoners can also slip into the nearby National Gallery where an exhibition relating to the Royal Ballet's Titian project includes footage of its development.